On Saturday at New York Comic-Con, Marvel was scheduled to do a splashy launch event announcing the crossover between the Avengers and Northrop Grumman, a notorious arms dealer whose stealth bombers and drones have been front and center in the US campaigns of assassination in many theaters of war, declared and undeclared, in which literally uncounted civilians have been collateral damage.

After widespread fan outrage on Twitter and in person at the Javitts Center, Marvel announced that the deal was dead and the comic would never be published.

Marvel issued a statement by email on Saturday.

“The activation with Northrop Grumman at New York Comic Con was meant to focus on aerospace technology and exploration in a positive way,” it said. “However, as the spirit of that intent has not come across, we will not be proceeding with this partnership, including this weekend’s event programming.

“Marvel and Northrop Grumman continue to be committed to elevating, and introducing, STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] to a broad audience.”

Northrop Grumman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

William Gibson’s 2014 novel The Peripheral was the first futuristic book he published in the 21st century, and it showed us a distant future in which some event, “The Jackpot,” had killed nearly everyone on Earth, leaving behind a class of ruthless oligarchs and their bootlickers; in the 2018 sequel, Agency, we’re promised a closer look at the events of The Jackpot. Between then and now is Archangel, a time-traveling, alt-history, dieselpunk story of power-mad leaders and nuclear armageddon.

The Lumberjanes (previously) are headed toward a TV screen near you, but despite the furious effort that must entail, it’s a sure thing that no one is neglecting their duties to the comic book. Twomore collections have been published since I last reviewed the collections, and they are pure Lumberjanes dynamite: anarchic, sweet, funny, and full of more memorable characters from more magical races than the entire Monster Manual and the Fiend Folio.